2 Current and forecast demand for services

1 Introduction

This capacity plan addresses the capacity needs of [Organization Name] and the current ability of the infrastructure to meet them. It makes recommendations for adjusting current capacity in line with future requirements before any thresholds are reached and service is affected.

1.1 Scope of the plan

This document represents the capacity plan for the key services supported by [Organization Name] over the 12-month period starting in mm/yyyy. As such, it takes into account the predicted future demands from users and balances them with the current utilisation of the various components of the service such as servers and network infrastructure in order to arrive at a recommended plan of action to ensure that service is maintained. It is intended to develop the tools and methods used during yyyy to allow more accurate recording of current usage and forecasting of future needs.

1.2 Methods used

Information concerning future usage of key services is collected by the demand management process and as part of the regular service review process and is a standard item on the agenda of each meeting. Customers are asked to highlight any known increases or decreases in the usage of existing services and any other business events likely to impact on the effective provision of service.

Data regarding the current usage of technical resources is collected via a number of monitoring tools (such as Performance Monitor and HP Insight Manager on Windows and CloudWatch on AWS) and is analysed quarterly to identify trends.

1.3 Assumptions made

In preparing this plan, the following assumptions have been made:

Forecasts of future use are accurate, both in terms of timing and degree of change Measurements of current capacity usage are representative of typical demand

These assumptions will be reviewed on a regular basis to assess their continued validity.

2 Current and forecast demand for services

There are a number of key business, technical, statutory, regulatory and contractual aspects that could potentially have an impact upon the capacity of the service in the timeframe under consideration.

2.1 Changes affecting capacity requirements

The following changes are expected to have an impact on the capacity that needs to be provided over the next 12 months:

The implementation of <new system> in mm/yyyy. This runs on a new server that has been sized appropriately by the supplier and so is not expected to have any significant impact upon the existing infrastructure The expansion of mobile working. This will expand from its current pilot level of around x to a maximum of around y users over the next x months, although this traffic will largely run across the internet and into a purpose-built mobile working server which has been sized for the maximum Further rollout of the [existing] system to additional departments Various office moves – the number of users will not change but there will be an increased concentration of users in the larger offices. These offices and the data links between them have been sized to cope with this increase.

Each of these issues may have an impact not only on infrastructure but also on the support capacity within [Organization Name].

2.2 Trends

In addition to these there are some general trends that will have an impact upon the available capacity. These are:

Increased use of cloud infrastructure services, mainly PaaS and SaaS, and the adoption of the elastic capability of cloud service provision Increasing use of the web site by customers The trend toward working from home by [Organization Name] staff Bring Your Own Device

These areas will be monitored over time to see how they develop.